NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty)


Overview:


NPT Signed:1 July 1968.
NPT Signatories:191 Signatories.
NPT Effective from:5 March 1970.
Non-Parties:India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and South Sudan.
NPT Type:Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Technology.
NPT Area:International treaty.

What is NPT?


The acronym NPT stands for Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT is an international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Technology.

The signatories, which are non-nuclear-weapon states agreed to never acquire nuclear weapons, and the signatories, which already have nuclear weapons, agreed to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology with other countries.

South Africa is the only country that developed nuclear weapons by itself and later dismantled them.

The former Soviet states Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, which inherited nuclear weapons from the former USSR, dismantled them and declared themselves as non-nuclear-weapon states.


NPT Signed:


The Non-Proliferation Treaty opened for signature on 1st July 1968 and came into effect on 5th March 1970. On 11 May 1995, by consensus, the Treaty was extended indefinitely.


Signatories:


The NPT has been signed by 191 countries till now, including five permanent members of the UNSC.


NPT Parties:


The treaty opened for signature in 1968, and till now a total of 191 countries including five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and nuclear-weapon States, joined this treaty


Non-Parties of NPT:


A total of five major countries in the world have not joined the treaty till now, and they are India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and South Sudan.


Objectives:


The main objective of the NPT is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology.

The NPT promotes cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The NPT also working to achieve nuclear disarmament in the world.


India and NPT:


India has not signed the NPT till now because NPT only recognizes the countries that had tested nuclear weapons before 1967. If any country signs the treaty, it will not be considered a nuclear weapon state. In 2007, in Tokyo, then India's external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said that "If India did not sign the NPT, it is not because of its lack of commitment for non-proliferation, but because we consider NPT as a flawed treaty and it did not recognize the need for universal, non-discriminatory verification and treatment."


International Treaties

Non-Proliferation Treaty